I have been doing a lot more photography at dusk and have been rather upset at some of the blurry images I’ve produced. Between the aperture settings and slow shutter speeds, it has become obvious I needed to invest in a monopod.
Keep in mind, the photography I’m speaking of is chasing my 2 year old around parks and beaches, so lugging the tri-pod around isn’t an option
The following images illustrate how important a Monopod can be to help steady your hand and keep the nasty blur out of your images. In my very unscientific testing, I found that my monopod is good for roughly 3 stops of motion control in my overly caffeinated hands.
For those of you not familiar with the technical jargon of what ‘stops’ relates to, this site (link) has everything you ever needed to know about f-stops
Results will always vary between photographers based on how steady you hold your camera with or without a MonoPod. If at all possible, I try to lean against a wall, sit on the ground or get down on a knee with (or without) a monopod, to help give even more steadiness.
For those who like to see pictures, here are the test shots (click on them for larger version):
This is with hands shot @ 1/15sec f/16
This is with monopod shot @ 1/15sec f/16
Shooting with hands I needed to go up to f/11 and 1/30sec to match the monopod.
This is a real world sample from tonight, summer is here!
